


the train room

by MaliciousVegetarian



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Libraries, M/M, Small Towns, Trains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28481601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaliciousVegetarian/pseuds/MaliciousVegetarian
Summary: Geralt is a new library director.  Jaskier is a firefighter who helps run the annual train room.  Geralt has a plan to take the train room for his library.  There is surprisingly little conflict.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 6
Kudos: 51
Collections: The Witcher Secret Santa 2020





	the train room

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @knightryder24 on tumblr for @thewitchersecretsanta. I had a blast writing this! All library details are taken from my mom, who is a librarian, so if they're off blame her.
> 
> Warnings: None

The library is quiet at this time of day. If Geralt is being honest, the library is quiet most times of the day, but he chooses not to dwell on that. Sure, they have some of the lowest patronage in the system, but they’re also in a dying town with no open businesses aside from the bank.

The quiet seeps into every part of the building, seeming to infect his staff and volunteers. He’s put Dara, his daughter Ciri’s friend and a reliable volunteer despite being fourteen, to work pulling holds, and Priscilla and Triss are busy at their computers, probably not doing work. He doesn’t blame them. He isn’t really doing anything either, just watching over his little library.

He’s been director here for five months, and it hasn’t been easy. To survive, the library needs to change, and this small Kaedweni town is nothing if not reluctant to change. He’s the only one of his staff who currently has a masters, although Triss is putting herself through library school.

“Someone should be coming about the train room today.”

He spins around. He’d been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed Triss leave her desk and come up behind him. “Hmm.”

The train room is one of his projects - or it’s going to be, once he’s buttered the board up enough. Which might take a while, considering he’s socially awkward and prone to underspeaking, but he’ll make it work. He suspects Calanthe, the frankly terrifying head of the board, thinks of him as crazy in an amusing way, which is a start.

“You won’t have to do anything besides unlocking the back for them,” Triss assures him. “It’ll probably be Letho, you’ve met him before.”

He appreciates Triss - saying that she keeps him mostly sane at this job wouldn’t be an exaggeration - but he hates the feeling of being handled. “It’ll be fine, whoever it is.” She just grins in response.

“Do you know where the key is?”

He doesn’t.

\--

He’s not sure what he’s expecting from a firefighter, but it’s definitely not a man his own age in a blue cable knit sweater that brings out his eyes. The kid looks like all of Geralt’s friends from library school, mashed into one. Geralt always felt out of place at library school.

He introduces himself as Jaskier. He’s bright and bubbly and Geralt isn’t sure entirely how to handle him. Because he doesn’t just take the key from Geralt, oh no. He clearly wants to talk.

“I heard you’re trying to move our train room!” He says cheerily. Geralt’s stomach sinks. He didn’t realize the firefighters had heard about that. He can’t afford to alienate them. Jaskier must realize, because he laughs. “Don’t worry, I think it’s a good idea. Don’t tell the other firefighters I said that, though.”

Geralt relaxes a little, but not all the way. He rarely relaxes all the way these days. Or maybe ever.

“Do you want to come in?” Jaskier asks with a bright smile that makes something in Geralt do a flip. “I can give you the official tour.”

“I’ve been in there.” Geralt pointedly doesn’t bring up the time he was in there alone and one of the train whistles went off because it was definitely nothing and hadn’t scared him at all. He does watch Jaskier go in, though. Not like that, the way people joke about watching people walk away, because Geralt is wildly asexual and doesn’t really get the whole butt thing. But he appreciates the silhouette of Jaskier in the dark room, the way he moves, the lines of his body. He’s a beautiful thing.

And suddenly, Geralt knows he’s fucked.

\--

The train room opens after Thanksgiving. Suddenly, Geralt’s little library is flooded with people, none of whom are here for books. He tries not to be bitter, but as much as he worries about their circulation numbers, he finds he prefers the library quiet. He likes having it to himself.

There are always firefighters watching the door, welcoming people in. Geralt’s pretty sure they bro around in the back - the previous director told him tales of them using a grill in the train room, but he’s not sure if there’s truth to it.

He definitely doesn’t hang around to see if he can see Jaskier. Not at all, not even a little bit, even though Triss definitely notices. She keeps giving him Looks, which Geralt ignores because nothing is going on.

Except every time Jaskier is there, he always seems to make a point to talk to Geralt. He’s happy and chipper, but Geralt tries not to read anything into it. Why would someone like Jaskier be interested in a dour library director?

"You have a daughter, right?" Jaskier asks one day. "You should bring her by!"

Geralt almost points out that Ciri is fourteen and likely to consider a train room little kid stuff (not to mention that she's heard Geralt ranting about it for the past few months) when Jaskier says, "I'd love to meet her!"

It would, Geralt thinks, probably be good for the library director to be seen engaging in a town tradition, especially since most residents seem to consider him very much an outsider. Yeah. He'll drag Ciri along, and maybe Yennefer, for the image. Or maybe not Yennefer - when they go out in public people tend to make assumptions, and he doesn't want - he doesn't want _the town_ getting the wrong idea.

"We'll be there," he says gruffly, before returning to the shelter of the circulation desk.

\--

They go the next weekend. Ciri is less resistant than expected, mostly because she sees it as an opportunity to engage in her favorite holiday pastime, forcing her dad to engage in "festive" activities and then laughing at him. In a stunning display of hypocrisy, she also mocks him for the rare times he gets too into the season's spirit (he and his brothers admittedly get intense about tree selection). Teenagers. You can't win.

They pull up at the library in Yennefer’s Prius (Geralt’s truck has, yet again, broken down) and Ciri doesn’t wait for him before throwing open the car door and running for the library steps. The line of people has snaked out the door, and Geralt shudders at how much heating is going to cost this month.

Standing in line is never pleasant, but Geralt and Ciri have a time honored tradition of games to play while doing so - quietly deciding which of their linemates are secretly monsters. Before long, they’re through the big glass doors, standing in the warm lobby. Ciri takes her mittens off and shoves them in her coat pocket.

There’s hot chocolate set up in the corner, and Geralt is surprised to see a few people looking through the permanent book sale as they wait. Without really meaning to, he strains to see Jaskier, but the hallway is blocked with people in bulky coats.

Ciri sees him looking. “Expecting someone? Scoping out the competition?” She’s been thoroughly filled in on Geralt’s plans of conquest.

“Yeah, sure.” He tells her, distracted. One of the mittens is falling out of her coat pocket, so he takes it out and puts it in the opposite pocket. She pouts.

“Don’t dad at me in public!”

“But we’re in public, and I’m your dad,” he tells her, deadpan, and she groans.

There’s a soft chuckle from behind them, and Geralt turns to see Jaskier. He’s wearing a jauntily bent santa hat and a cable sweater with trains on the front, and Geralt gets the sudden and deep urge to hug him.

“Hi, Geralt,” he says, sounding strangely breathless. “I wasn’t sure you’d show up.”

“It’s uh. It’s good for the library,” Geralt says, and fuck. If he’s falling over his words like this that means it’s worse than he thought. Luckily, Jaskier doesn’t call him out on it and turns to Ciri instead.

“You must be Cirilla.”

“Ciri,” she says, sticking out her hand for a firm handshake, the way Yennefer taught her.

“Ciri,” he agrees. “Thanks for coming with your dad today.”

“Oh, I couldn’t let him go on his own,” Ciri says with a sly grin. “He gets lonely.”

“I’m right here,” Geralt grumbles, but they ignore him, moving towards the train room and chatting like they’re old friends.

The train room, Geralt will admit, is a lot more impressive when it’s all set up and the lights are on. All the firefighters he sees give him cheery smiles, so he must not be too on their bad side. That or they’re all very good actors.

\--

Christmas comes and goes. Geralt and Ciri spend the morning together, before heading to Vesemir and his husband Ellis’ house for dinner. Yennefer joins them, and at Geralt’s invitation, Triss drops in. Geralt has a sneaking suspicion the two of them hit it off.

It doesn’t snow on Christmas, but it snows the day Geralt goes back to the library. As a part time employee, he got a slightly better holiday deal than most of his employees. To his surprise, the little building seems to echo without the throngs of people.

It doesn’t change his mind about wanting that space, though.

But he does miss something, and it doesn’t take him a long time to realize it’s Jaskier. As he shovels yet more snow off the library stairs and ramp, he finds himself thinking about their talks when the train room had been open. As he weeds in the stacks, he thinks about the easy way he’d conversed with Ciri. As he searches desperately in the circ desk for the book drop key, he thinks of how Jaskier would smile at the story.

Triss and Yennefer go to see a movie together. Triss, for reasons Geralt doesn’t want to think about, avoids telling him the details, but Yennefer suddenly starts volunteering at the library.

The thing is that Geralt could find Jaskier. If he wanted to be wildly unethical, he could look up his phone number in the system, but that thought barely crosses his mind before he dismisses it. But he could ask around. He doesn’t think Jaskier would mind if he asked the fire chief to pass along a message. He doesn’t, though, for a multitude of reasons, all of which boil down to the fact that Jaskier deserves a better relationship than Geralt can give him.

When it comes down to it, Geralt’s good at people, but he’s not good at relationships. He’s not even really good at friendships outside of Yenn (and Borch, and Zoltan, and Milva, and maybe Triss). When he’s hurt, he emotionally pillbugs - pulls all the soft parts inside, leaving only the shell. He’s working on it, but it’s still his go to reaction.

So he doesn’t do anything, and when he lets himself daydream at all, he thinks about next Christmas.

\--

Jaskier shows up on a Wednesday. It’s late January, and the snow has all melted except for dirty gray lumps where the plows piled it up. Geralt is in his office, head full of book orders, and Triss knocks on the door. “Someone’s here to see you,” She says.

Jaskier is standing behind her, looking nervous. “Is it okay if I come in the office?”

“Yeah,” Geralt says, slightly stunned.

“So I was thinking,” Jaskier says. “About your idea about the train room.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. And I want to help you with it.”

Geralt looks at him, taking him all in. Then he says, “I think. I think we should go to the Poppy for lunch this weekend. To talk about the train room.”

Jaskier grins. “Just to talk about the train room?”

“Maybe not just that,” Geralt says, smiling back.


End file.
